Management: Why I Became a PRN Occupational Therapist

I won’t lie: prior to having my son, I was absolutely was one of those childless individuals who said things like, “Having children will in no way change my life!” and “Being a mom will just be one small facet of who I am as an individual!” Yeah… I know. In my defense, I was never one of those women who grew up thinking I was destined to be a Mother™. I never even thought I would have kids, and if I did, I was going to be over 40 and would definitely not birth them. Well! Best laid plans, amiright? Turns out:

  1. I wanted to be pregnant (so we did that, and I’m glad I did)

  2. I like being a mom

  3. I like my kid

  4. I didn’t want to prioritize my career over those early days, months, and years with him

This is where I add the “Trigger Warning for Financial Privilege,” because I recognize that I would not have been allowed this time with Baer if not for the privilege I have. I hadn’t even returned to work from maternity leave when I realized I didn’t want to leave Baer. I told my husband I didn’t think I could do it, and he was surprisingly understanding about it. It took him less than a day to come up with a plan:  I would go PRN. 

If you’re not a healthcare worker or in the healthcare industry, PRN is short for the Latin term “Pro re nata,” which means “as needed”. Basically, we’re the substitute teachers of the healthcare world. There are PRN nurses, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists… pretty much every area has PRN staffing. 

There are benefits to being a PRN therapist:  

  1. Flexible hours (most of the time you make your own schedule)

  2. Higher hourly rates

  3. Less oversight on productivity

  4. And if you don’t like a particular patient, the odds of you working with them again are relatively small 😊

Those are nice! However, there are some things that full time therapists get that PRN therapists are not privy to, such as:

  1. Health insurance. To be fair, I don’t know that this is always the case. If you work full-time PRN hours at a consistent rate, you may be eligible depending on your employer, you just need to check. Unfortunately, some employers deliberately cap your hours to keep you from being eligible for those benefits; that’s been my personal experience.

  2. First dibs on holidays off. Some companies like to give their full-time staff first pick on which holidays they’d like to work, and PRN staff fills in the empty holidays. Again, this is not always the case.

  3. Forging relationships with other staff members at the facility because you’re not there consistently.

  4. Guaranteed hours. I have quit some PRN jobs because they kept calling me off. Honestly, what’s the point of signing up for shifts if you never work? But that’s a call you need to make for yourself.

Here is where I tell you the story of my favorite PRN job. After Baer was born and I quit my full-time job, I interviewed for a job at the same hospital group where he was born. Embarrassingly, I cried in the interview when I thought about the wonderful experience I had at the hospital! Who knows, maybe that helped me, because less than a day later, they called to say I had the gig. I spent almost three years with HonorHealth in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area, and I enjoyed it. I had great bosses (both in the float pool office and in the DORs at the hospitals themselves), and I had amazing coworkers. I stopped working there in December 2021, and I still keep in touch with so many people from there. Besides those obvious reasons, part of what was so great about that job was the fact that I was always guaranteed to keep whatever shifts I signed up for. At that time, HonorHealth consisted of five hospitals (plus other smaller facilities). So, I floated between the five campuses, and I can count on one hand the number of times I was called off. It just never happened! They had so few occupational therapists and so many hospital beds that I was always needed. The odds were in my favor.

If you’re thinking about a PRN job, I would recommend asking someone who already works at that facility as a PRN therapist what it’s like. How many shifts are they required to work? Do they actually get to work the shifts they sign up for? And be sure to think about your motivation for the PRN gig. Are you thinking it’ll be supplemental—or your primary source of income? What are you going to do for insurance? These are all importance questions to answer. PRN is fun, and there are a lot of benefits to it, but it’s important to make sure you’ve crossed your Ts and dotted your Is… and tightened your gait belts!

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